Forever a Family
by missy126
Summary: Even though it was hard for Tony to believe he was a father he adored her, ever since she'd shown up at his house, abandoned at the age of six. He had no idea how to take care of her, but he never sent her away. She needed him and, some time along the way, he found out he needed her. What's he going to do though when she's dragged into the middle of the Avengers' conflict?
1. Father's Daughter

**thanks for checking out my new story! **

**_Father's Daughter_**

No matter how hard she tried, Jade knew that she was different.

It wasn't her auburn hair, though there were few that had that shade naturally. It wasn't her bright green eyes that inspired her mother to name her Jade. It wasn't even her maternal abandonment issues that set her apart from other people; plenty of people had similar problems, many of them worse. On her own, she was fairly average, a college student, a psychology major. It wasn't who she was that made so many people notice her existence. Sitting in her cramped apartment now at the table studying, someone knocked at the door before letting themselves in.

"Hey Tony," Jade smiled at him, using her pen to mark her place as she closed her textbook. "Nice of you to knock this time."

It was him that made her stand out, her father Tony Stark. Having your last name as Stark was enough, but since her father had become Iron Man they were in the public eye even more. He seemed to enjoy it, while she could do without it.

"I don't like it," Tony told her simply, coming to stand at the other side of the table from her.

"Well, we've talked about this," Jade said back, opening her book again to continue studying. "If I'm going to make it on my own, you can't just pay for my apartment." She rolled her eyes playfully. "Or the whole building."

She knew he hated her tiny apartment, hated the part of town she lived in. Why wouldn't she just come stay at Stark Tower with him, at least until she was done with school? He had asked Pepper why Jade was so stubborn, to which she pointed out who Jade's father was.

"Well, I'm your dad," Tony told her. It still seemed strange to him to say it, even after all this time. "I'm allowed to hate where you live."

"Whatever you say Tony," Jade laughed to herself, still looking down at her studies.

"Could you stop that?" Tony asked in reference to her reading, but Jade thought he meant something else.

"I've called you Tony since I was six," she reminded him. "You said dad made you sound old."

"Oh, it does," Tony nodded in agreement.

At twenty-six, he had a pretty hard time believing the six year old girl with pig tails and a pink sign that said _Congratulations Dad_ was actually his daughter. But she was, her mother abandoning her on Tony's front step. Now here she was, twenty-one years old and in her last year of college, planning on graduate school in the fall.

"I meant with the book," he told her and she shut it again.

"You know what they call people that need constant, undivided attention?" she asked him.

"We've talked about psycho-analyzing me," he reminded her and she fought off a laugh. "What are you doing this weekend?"

"You're looking at it," Jade shrugged and he looked at her curiously.

"Aren't college kids supposed to go out?" Tony asked her. "Disappear for a weekend or something."

"Sounds like you're trying to get rid of me," Jade mused and Tony shrugged. The truth was, he had been approached about a recent threat, the agents of SHIELD calling those who they referred to as the Avengers together for help. In his experience, these threats usually spread through the cities first, attacking the populated areas. He wanted her some place remote.

"You could probably get some decent studying done up at the lake house," he told her, motioning around the small room. "I imagine it gets loud around here, thin walls."

"Maybe," Jade agreed. "But I can't order shawarma up at the lake."

"You tried it without me?" Tony asked her now in surprise.

"...no?" Jade offered.

"Well, I'm just shocked at your behavior Jade Stark," Tony said, acting offended as he got up. "I hope you think about what you've done."

"I'll go straight to my room," Jade smirked at him, opening her book again. "Love you Tony."

"You too Jade," Tony said back, letting himself out of the apartment. Even though it was hard for him to believe he was a father at times, he adored her, ever since she'd shown up at his house, abandoned at the age of six. He had no idea how to take care of her, but he never sent her away. She needed him and, some time along the way, he found out he needed her. And now he would do what he had to in order to keep the world safe for her.

**thanks for reading! i know it was short, but i just wanted to introduce the idea of tony having a daughter. thoughts? please review! :)**


	2. The Best Friend

**_The Best Friend_**

_Flashback - 15 years ago_

Tony woke up that morning, the remnants of a party from last night around him, the house trashed. Conveniently, everyone from the party had abandoned the house, leaving him with the damages. Oh well. Right now, he was too busy trying to block out the sound of the ringing door bell downstairs, hoping whoever it was would take the hint and go away, leaving him with his hangover. After a few minutes though, he realized they weren't going anywhere. Rolling out of bed, he changed and dragged his feet the whole way to the front door.

"I'm coming," he snapped, opening the door. There was no one in front of him though and he was surprised; then, he looked down.

"Hi!" the little girl grinned at him, her red hair in pig tails, wearing a pale blue dress with yellow daisies on it. Behind her was a pink suitcase sitting on it's wheels.

"Um, hi," Tony said, looking around outside for any sign of parents; nothing. "You a girl scout?"

"Huh?"

"I'll get two boxes of thin mints," he told her.

"I don't have any," she shook her head, handing him a folded piece of pink construction paper. "I have a card, from my mommy." Tony opened in and in black marker it read _Congratulations Dad_. Oh no, Tony thought to himself.

"Who's your mommy?" Tony asked.

"Claire." Oh no, he thought again as he remembered his college girlfriend. In his defense, she was the one that disappeared on him, breaking up with him out of no where. How was he supposed to know she had been pregnant?

"Where did she go?" Tony asked now, a pit forming in his stomach, the situation not looking good. Here this little girl was on his front step, with no place to go. He certainly couldn't turn her away, but he had no idea how to take care of her. He wasn't good with kids, he knew that from the few experiences he had with children.

"She said she would be right back," she shrugged.

"Mhmm," Tony nodded, knowing better. "Well, come on in kid," he opened the door wider and she rolled her pink suitcase by him.

"Your house is dirty," she told him.

"Uh huh," Tony said, kicking some mess to the side and she laughed. "Come here," he picked her up and she giggled as he set her on the counter. "Did you have anything to eat yet?"

"Nope," she shook her head.

"What do little girls eat for breakfast?" he asked, searching the cabinets.

"Ice cream."

"Nice try," he commented and she giggled again; that made him smile. "What's your name?"

"Jade," she answered.

"That's pretty," Tony told her, stopping at the counter now with a carton of ice cream and two spoons. Jade gave him a confused look. "Maybe just this one time," he told her, taking the lid off he carton before both of them dug in.

"Are you my dad?" Jade asked, her mouth full of strawberry ice cream.

"You can read?" Tony asked, remembering the card.

"I'm six, not stupid," Jade told him and he laughed.

"Fair enough," he agreed, eating some of the ice cream now. "Looks like you're going to stay with me for now kid." He didn't have the heart to tell her yet that it was most likely permanent, that Claire wasn't coming back for her.

"Ok dad," Jade nodded and Tony involuntarily made a face. "What?"

"Dad makes me sound old," Tony told her.

"You are old," she giggled and he half smiled.

"What if you just call me Tony?" he offered and her mouth dropped open, her six year old mind blown that she got to call a grown up by their first name.

"Really?" she gasped and he nodded.

"Mhmm," he promised. "Whatcha think?"

"Cool!"

* * *

Tony couldn't stop thinking about Jade, unable to help it even if he was already out of New York. Once he became a dad, he was always worried about her and her safety. There was nothing he could do now though as he was already out of New York. He had gone to Germany, tracking down the threat SHIELD was worried about, some Norse god named Loki that had taken the Tesseract. After a confrontation with Loki's brother, Thor, they had settled on taking him in to SHIELD together with the other Avengers on the helicarrier, flying somewhere over the Atlantic ocean.

Tony involuntarily checked his phone again, in the lab now with Bruce Banner, working through the night. He hadn't expected a message from Jade since it was so late. It was a dad thing though, he couldn't help but worry and wonder what she was up to, especially when he didn't know how this situation with Loki was going to pan out. This time as he looked at his phone, Banner caught a glimpse of the background picture. It was one Jade made him take with her a few weeks ago on his birthday.

"Your daughter?" Banner asked and Tony nodded.

"You got any kids?" Tony asked, unlocking his phone now as he prepared to call her, regardless of the time.

"No," Banner shook his head.

"Lucky, you never had a teenage girl," Tony joked, motioning to his head. "Aggravation and all." Banner snorted a laugh as Tony had been making Hulk jokes all night. He looked at him in confusion though as Tony held the phone up to his ear.

"You know what time it is in New York?" Banner asked him, raising an eye brow; Tony just waved him off.

_"Hello?"_ Jade grumbled sleepily on the other end of the line.

"Jade, hi," Tony said when she answered. "What are you doing?" Jade rolled onto the other side of her bed to look at the alarm clock.

_"It's three in the morning, I was sleeping,"_ Jade muttered, rubbing her eyes.

"Oh," Tony nodded, not phased by this. "Where, your apartment?"

_"Yeah, that place where I live,"_ Jade said, full of sarcasm as she was still laying in bed._ "Are you drinking?"_

"No," Tony said in offense. "I just thought that you might have gone up to the lake house and had a party." He shrugged now. "Wanted to make sure the house was still standing."

_"Well, sorry to bore you,"_ Jade told him. _"But instead of partying, I was studying."_

"Lame."

_"You're an awful influence,"_ Jade yawned.

"I just think you need to have more fun," Tony told her, trying to hide that he was lying by sounding encouraging.

_"I think I need more sleep,"_ Jade laughed back. _"Good night Tony."_

"Good night," Tony gave up, hanging up the phone now.

* * *

Jade woke up the next morning, not exactly sure what was going on with her dad. Whatever was going on, it seemed to really be getting to him, though she wrote it off as what she always referred to as an _Iron Man thing_. The more he saw of the world, the more people he came up against, the more he worried about her. She understood why, and she was glad that there was someone out there that worried about her. She thought the three am phone call was a little excessive though.

Once she was up, it sounded like her next door neighbors were back to fighting again. She wondered what the point of the couple even was as they always seemed to be angry with each other. Regardless, it made it nearly impossible to study. And while her dad's comment the other night about her apartment having thin walls felt like a cheap shot, it was one hundred percent true.

One thing she didn't agree with her dad though was that she should go up to the lake house. She didn't really like the lake house to begin with, they hardly ever used it. If she went up there for the weekend, she would probably spend most of her weekend cleaning it instead of doing the school stuff she had to get done. Instead, she packed a duffel bag for a weekend before calling a cab to go to her father's home at Stark Tower. She knew it would be quiet there, no noisy neighbors, plus her dad and Pepper were both gone. With her dad still having a room there for her, it would be the perfect place for her to study.

When she got there, she went back to her room and dropped her bag on her bed, heading back out into the main room, the bar off to the side, the couches and coffee table in the middle. The view was the best part of her dad's place, one of her favorite things about it as it looked out onto the entire city. Walking out onto the large terrace, the sun warming the skin exposed by her tank top, having paired it with jeans.

Looking down at the busy streets below, she thought about how differently she had grown up. Before it was just her and her mom, those days blurry in her memory. There were a lot of odd jobs for her mom and short term housing options, moving around a lot. She often wondered if this was why her mom left her with Tony, but it still bothered her that her mother had just left her, never hearing from her again. How was that a better option?

It wasn't that Tony wasn't great though. He wasn't just her dad, he was her friend too. Tony never acted like he knew what was best for her, taking control and trying to over compensate for two parents. Often times, he had just admitted to having no idea what he was doing, learning on the job, both of them making it up as they went. It was unconventional, but it worked for them. Dialing her father now, she was forced to leave a voice mail.

"Hey Tony, it's me," Jade told him, going back inside now. "I'm not at the lake house, I'm at your place for the weekend. So..." She shrugged to herself. "I'll see you whenever you're back from whatever it is you're doing," she smiled. "Love you."

**thanks so much for the reviews and for following my story! hope you liked this update, please review! :)**


	3. Talks

_**Talks**_

Jade hung up the phone, placing it back into her pocket before going back inside. She knew that she had to seriously get to studying, before too much of the weekend slipped away from her. Going into the apartment, she set her phone on the coffee table before going back to her bedroom to get one of her textbooks she had brought over. As she unzipped her duffel bag, she thought that she might have forgotten it, turning her bag inside out to look for it. That was when she heard someone talking out in the apartment. She recognized it as a male voice and wondered who was there as she cracked her door open to listen closer.

"What did you say happened to the ship?" she heard an older sounding man saying.

"Should be somewhere in the Atlantic by now," someone else said, his voice younger sounding and having an accent. "Even if they managed to save themselves, they're certainly not much of a threat."

"I'll get to work then," the older man was telling him and Jade heard him opening the door to go outside to the balcony.

Jade thought to call her father, reaching for her phone in her pocket. She then realized that it was on the coffee table out in the main room though. Unable to call for help, she hoped that Tony would get home soon. Quietly, she went to shut her bedroom door, hoping she wouldn't be noticed by the others.

"Hello," the man with the accent was saying as he was standing behind her, making her jump back and scream.

* * *

Those that were left on the helicarrier weren't sure what to do next. Thor was gone, as was Bruce. Natasha was with Clint, making sure he was all right after his head injury, hoping that had broken Loki's hold on him. Left in the room now was Tony and Steve, neither of whom got along very well. They had managed to save the ship from crashing into the ocean, but after that they weren't sure what the next move should be.

Tony could hear Fury talking about Coulson's death, knowing it was some kind of motivational tactic. Steve was saying something now about Loki and what his next move was, but Tony was officially tuned out. Not wanting to listen anymore, he got up and left but found himself in the room where they had been holding Loki, where Coulson had been killed.

"Thinking about Coulson?" Steve asked as he approached him.

"More about Loki," Tony answered. "What to do next." Steve nodded.

"I found this," Steve handed Tony his phone that he had abandoned during the fight, the screen cracked.

"Oh, um, thanks," Tony said as he took it back, not sure what it mattered right now. Looking at it, he noticed that he had a new voice mail from Jade.

"That's your daughter?" Steve asked of the phone's picture and Tony nodded, listening to the voice mail now. "She's pretty."

"No," Tony told him, pressing one to listen to his message. As far as he was concerned, guys weren't supposed to even look at his daughter, even if Steve was probably just being polite.

_"Hey Tony, it's me. I'm not at the lake house, I'm at your place for the weekend. So...I'll see you whenever you're back from whatever it is you're doing. Love you."_

"What is it?" Steve asked, seeing the concerned look on Tony's face.

"What was it you were saying before?" Tony asked him, ready to listen now. "To Fury, about Loki."

"That he's thriving on attention," Steve answered, not sure where Tony was going with this. "That's why he made that scene in Germany, but that's not going to be enough for the next part of his plan."

"No, he's going to want everyone to see," Tony continued Steve's thought. "He's going to want it to be a show."

"Where are you going?" Steve asked.

"He's going to Stark Tower," Tony answered.

"We'll get to New York soon," Steve was trying to tell him. "You're just going to take on Loki and the Chitauri alone?"

"I have to," Tony told him. "My daughter's there."

* * *

Jade sat on the couch, arms crossed over herself, head spinning. There were two guys at her father's home now, one outside working while the other paced the apartment inside, looking over the city. He was clearly the one in charge, introducing himself to her as Loki. He had run over his plan to her, though she couldn't really focus, not able to believe all this was happening. He hadn't said anything about her, but she knew she was leverage as he quickly pieced together she was the "metal man's child."

_Where the hell was Tony?_ It was all Jade could think about. She remembered Loki saying about the ship crashing into the ocean, she hoped her father wasn't on it. This was much more his territory than hers, she had no idea how to handle this situation. Now she was just sitting on the couch while the bad guy paced the living room in front of her, watching the city he soon planned to control.

"You seem uneasy," he commented to her.

"Uh huh," Jade agreed sarcastically, trying to think of what her dad would do. The more she thought about it, the more she realized her dad was good at getting under people's skin, though she wasn't sure how that was supposed to help her. "What did you say your name was again?"

"Loki," he answered.

"Loki...like Thor's brother?" she asked, remembering her mythology class from sophomore year. She noticed the way he shifted uncomfortably, not happy that she had mentioned his brother; she made a mental note of that. "Norse gods and all that?"

"Yes," he answered, not sure why he was entertaining her questions. Maybe it was just a way to kill time while Selvig was still working on getting the portal to open.

"So, if he's the god of thunder," she continued to pick at the brother topic. "Are you lightning or something?"

"Mischief," he told her now, becoming a bit annoyed as she continued to bring up Thor. "Do you have any more silly questions?"

"Do you eat?" she asked him now.

"Excuse me?"

"Well, I mean you're a god or whatever," Jade continued. "So, I'm guessing you're immortal. So, I'm wondering if you ever have to eat." He shook his head at the nonsense as this was easily one of the stupider questions he had ever heard.

"Yes, I eat," he humored her.

"K," Jade nodded and was quiet for a moment. "I don't know if you caught on, but that was me hinting that I was starving."

"There doesn't seem to be much food," he noted the bar. "I assume your father does more drinking."

"Oooo," Jade said, looking him over. "Father issues?"

"What did you say to me?" Loki demanded.

"Well," Jade said hesitantly. "The aggression, trying to prove yourself. Taking shots at my dad." She shrugged. "Sounds like you have problems with your own dad."

"Do you always talk this much?" Loki asked her. He couldn't do anything to her, he needed her in the event her father or any of the other Avengers showed up in the city. After seeing them on the ship, it didn't seem like they were too good at working together, but it was good to have insurance. But he wasn't going to be able to stand much more of this conversation.

"When I'm bored," Jade nodded. "Too bad there's nothing else to keep me busy."

"I'm assuming this is you saying you want something," Loki mused, recalling her comments about food.

"Just my textbook," she told him.

"If it gets you to stop chattering so much."

**thanks so much to everyone that reviewed, followed, and added my story to their favorites! :) i'm so happy you like it, hope you liked this please review! thanks for reading! **


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